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Re: scald in lambs

I am not sure if it prevents its a brand that has been around for a few years while several others have come and gone ,so it must be affective to a point.

I try my best to avoid foot bathing as it can tend to kill healthy bacteria which protects the feet naturally and once you start you have to carry on foot bathing. That's why I am sceptical that it prevents foot scald.

Insanity is doing the same thing, over and over again, but expecting different results.

Re: scald in lambs

I find spreading lime in gateways ,near water troughs and their regular loafing areas cuts down infection drastically ,its a lot less work ,at £4.50 for a bag of lime it also more economical .I get the odd lamb scalding that gets a terramycin spray .It works if you are on the ball ,admittedly I have slipped up though and then there is a lot of work to do.

Insanity is doing the same thing, over and over again, but expecting different results.

Re: scald in lambs

My wife, being a vet, gets the Sheep Veterianary Association bumph, and slightly to my surprise (given that official veterinary policy is to minimise use of antibiotics) the Teramycin-containing foot sprays are strongly recommended, with a rider to say use it immediately on seeing signs of scald, not tomorrow or next week. I think the policy works, and it may be luck, but we now have virtually no scald, whereas in the past we regarded it as one of those minors ailments which would sort itself out, only footbathing if some of them were badly lame: and to be fair, that worked reasonably well.

Re: scald in lambs

Thanks for the replies. Have tried lots of different treatments over the years and tried Hoofsure a couple of weeks ago. Even sprayed the very lame ones with 20% solution directly onto feet. Thought I had found a relatively cheap alternative to terramycin spray. Used to use formalin until wife heard about the carcinogenic risk! Todays job will be bringing in as many batches as possible (or as many as the kids will help with) and reverting back to LA terramycin and spray.
Have heard about the lime before. I take it you are talking about hydrated? Does it work in a single pass system such as putting into a 'footbath' and running lambs through a couple of times?
Keeping grass short probably does help, but I find you get a check in lamb growth rate if you graze too tight. Also like to let ewes and lambs onto good grass after lambing.
Have also thought of copper sulphate for footbath/spray bottle. Does it work, and do you have to stand in or run through a couple of times?

Re: scald in lambs

Hydrated or http://www.nadins.co.uk/products/nadins-hydramix which is less severe for yourself . The idea is to spread in areas such as gateways ,water troughs or loafing areas like under trees ,it will not cure scald what it does is lower the PH and keep down bacteria and giving the lambs a better chance of combating it with their own natural defences , basically it contains the problem , works best in a paddock system were sheep graze a field at a time , less practical in a set stocking situation were sheep are constantly going through gateways each and everyday .IMO bacterial infection is never spread out evenly across a field , sunlight will always help and then there are differing moisture levels in every field there are many factors ,in my experience it can be less work to restrict the problems than treat.

Lime would be useless in a footbath ,in fact you need to keep them away from each other as a footbath chemical will almost certainly be acid while lime is of course alkaline .

Insanity is doing the same thing, over and over again, but expecting different results.

Re: scald in lambs

I was meaning to run lambs through lime alone, like a 'dust bath'. Just wondering if lime would work as an instant kill, or is it a more gradual process?
Brought in the batch that was footbathed in hoofsure a fortnight ago, plenty of lame ones. Did them all with LA Terramyin and spray. Will be interesting to see how effective it is.

Re: scald in lambs

Originally Posted by ramble on

I was meaning to run lambs through lime alone, like a 'dust bath'. Just wondering if lime would work as an instant kill, or is it a more gradual process?
Brought in the batch that was footbathed in hoofsure a fortnight ago, plenty of lame ones. Did them all with LA Terramyin and spray. Will be interesting to see how effective it is.

Did you ever try this? I have been googling scald in lambs and had come to the same conclusion that this might be worth attempting. I think I will experiment on a couple of control lambs and monitor them closely to see what the results are.